Then-Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., holds up a glass of beer during a conversation with local residents at Bethlehem Brew Works in Bethlehem, Pa., April 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

(Newser)
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Sure, in his first 100 days President Obama made much-publicized strides forward. But he also ruined the game of “black male intellectuals” everywhere, writes G’Ra Asim for Salon: “This dude is destroying our street cred.” Whereas Asim, once “the only African-American male in Advanced Placement US History,” once posed “a credible threat to the social order,” now he stays up nights searching the Internet for ways to be hipper.

“What is a milestone for Obama is a millstone to the coolness of black male intellectualism,” Asim opines. “Being confronted with an unapologetically intellectual, hyper-articulate black dude who is self-assured to the brink of arrogance” used to bring “bewilderment and consternation” from interviewers and parents alike; now the success of Obama—“the first hip president”—renders people like Asim “interminably square.”

G'Ra Asim really thinks he is something. Too bad he can't put his thoughts into real words rather than choosing the biggest weirdest words he can find in the dictionary to make a simple statement.

selva

May 27, 2009 4:34 AM CDT

If anything Obama sets the standard for all people of color, we better be intelligent and articulate, otherwise we will continue to fall by the waist side. Thank you Obama for pushing me to be the best I can.